5 Gadsden residents killed in plane crash in Colorado

Divers on Sunday located the wreckage of a small plane in which five people from Gadsden were killed Saturday when it crashed into a reservoir in Colorado.

The Gadsden Times, Wire Reports

Divers on Sunday located the wreckage of a small plane in which five people from Gadsden were killed Saturday when it crashed into a reservoir in Colorado.Officials have not released the identities of the plane’s occupants, pending notification of next of kin. However, multiple social media reports have identified the passengers as Gadsden businessman Jimmy Hill, president of Gadsden Tool; Katrina Vinzant Barksdale and her two sons, Xander and Kobe, students at Mitchell Elementary School; and Seth McDuffie, a student at Westbrook Christian School.Ouray County Public Information Officer Marti Whitmore at a news conference Sunday said the plane is 60 to 70 feet below the surface of the Ridgway Reservoir, south of Montrose, Colo. Search and rescue dogs alerted on an area of the lake, and sidescan sonar was used to locate the wreckage.Whitmore, according to reports from the Ouray County Plaindealer in the town of Ridgway, said recovery workers are operating on the assumption that the bodies stayed with the plane. Visibility at that depth is about 5 to 10 feet, and an official said the bodies may have to be brought up with the plane’s fuselage.County officials said they may have to bring in equipment from Denver or Salt Lake City to recover the fuselage.Recovery workers battled air and water temperatures on Sunday, Ridgway State Park Manager Kirsten Copeland said at the news conference. Boats patrolling the banks found some debris, she said.The reservoir is located in the park, which is in the southwestern portion of Colorado between Grand Junction and Durango, about 180 miles from Denver.Whitmore said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the regional Environmental Protection Agency office had been notified about the potential of hazardous materials in the reservoir from the crash, and a Colorado State Patrol hazmat specialist has been on-site from the beginning. However, no hazmat situation has developed as of yet.Federal Aviation Administration Spokesman Ian Gregor earlier Sunday said the single-engine Socata TBM700 crashed at about 1:50 p.m. Saturday in the reservoir. A portion of the plane was recovered and pulled to shore before efforts were suspended late Saturday afternoon, according to published reports.According to the FAA’s online database, the fixed-wing, turbo-prop plane, N702H, is registered to Gadsden Aviation LLC.Records at the Alabama Secretary of State’s office list Gadsden Tool as a member name for Gadsden Aviation LLC. The aviation company’s registered address, 712 Natco Drive, Rainbow City, is that of Gadsden Tool. Hill is listed as a registered agent and member name for Gadsden Aviation LLC in state records.Whitmore said the plane was traveling to Montrose after stopping in Bartlesville, Okla., on a flight originating from the Northeast Alabama Regional Airport in Gadsden. She said the plane crashed about 90 feet from shore.Ridgway resident Lena Martinez told the Plaindealer that she was attending a wedding on Saturday on Log Hill Mesa and saw the plane in a spin. From the meadow where the wedding was taking place, she saw the aircraft fly overhead and heard its impact in the reservoir.“It popped out of the thick, heavy clouds and went into a flat spin,” said Martinez.Witnesses told the Plaindealer that the plane went down in Mears Bay, in the northeast corner of the reservoir. An oil slick was visible on the water.Lynn Padgett, chairperson of the Ouray County Board of County Commissioners, said at the news conference that the victims’ families “are in our hearts and prayers.” She thanked local businesses that have provided lodging and meals to first responders.